Visiting Rome by Train from Civitavecchia

Fast Track Vatican Express Temporarely Suspended

The Fast Track train service is a private train service that was first introduced in 2011 for cruise travelers. The service is temporarily suspended for 2016 due to increased security problems on the railway line connecting Civitavecchia and Rome, which makes it too difficult to offer the intended return on time guarantee.

We still continue to offer regional train tickets (BIRG) combos (see here), priced from €32 per person (no return on time guarantee).

Alternative Bus Service to Rome offer a Return on Time Guarantee

Train services do not guarantee a return on time. For a service that does, refer to our Rome Bus Tours here starting at€19.00 for a round trip service.Bus tours depart from the port exit and do not require the additional 20 minute walk.

Reaching the Train Station

It takes up to 1 hour to go from the ship's pier to the train station. Cruise Travelers must take a free shuttle bus from the ship pier to the port exit. Once there you can either walk to the train station (20-30 min) or take public transportation (frequency is approximately once every 20 min + 15 minutes transfer time). City buses may not have enough capacity to move the large number of people arriving at once.

In 2011 Was Introduced the New Fast Track Round Trip Express Train to Rome

Finally a faster, more comfortable way to get to Rome for those visiting the eternal city on a day excursion from the port of Civitavecchia (€25.00 round trip).

After a few days test period for the service (which ran in October 2010), on April 2011 Trenitalia, in collaboration with 2 other privately owned transportation companies, has begun regular offering of a seasonal Fast Track Express train for round trip service to Rome St. Peter's station.

NOTE: This service does not run on a regular schedule. It is offered only on those days where there is a much higher affluence of cruise line traffic (see schedule/availability in the Book Now Section of this page).

A Bit of History

For years the local government has tried different approaches in the attempt to resolve the overcrowding of regional trains on Trenitalia FR5 Tract (Connecting Civitavecchia with Rome), that has brought so much discontent into the local population of commuters.

There are approximately 60,000 commuters that move on the Civitavecchia-Rome line for work or school. Local commuters buy a yearly pass to the Regional trains that connect the port to Rome (as well as all the several in-between smaller town).

During the high season for Mediterranean cruises, which runs from April into late October, there are several days during the week when more than 18,000 passengers disembark the cruse ships wanting to reach Rome. On those higher traffic days Trenitalia has dad a real problem offering acceptable service to both commuters and tourists. On many of those days the local regional trains offer only cramped stand up space and have had serious problems with the air conditioning keeping the temperature at comfortable levels. Only few months ago the problem became so severe that in May 2011 the commuters in Ladispoli (a town few stops away from Civitavecchia) were unable to enter the regional train because it had already reached (and passed) full capacity. This caused a revolt where the commuters, tired of a recurring problem, got in front of the train and interrupted the FR5 line for six hours. See one of the local newspaper articles discussing the event: original Italian version | English version translated with Google Translate. This kind of issue has brought the local commuters to create a committee that has been assisting in safeguarding all passengers' rights.

2011: SmartCruiseTours.com Offering the Sale of the Special Fast Track Train Online

Here at SmartCruiseTours.com we are proud to be actively involved in contributing to the solution to the above illustrated transportation problem on the FR5 train tract connecting Civitavecchia with Rome.

By providing information regarding this new service to the international community of cruise travelers, and by further offering online purchases of trains services not previously offered online, we feel we are bringing a positive and strong contribution to the improvement of the service offered to cruise travelers.